Sit and go tournaments may be difficult to win, but they are extremely easy to lose if you play poorly and don’t focus. This article will look at some common mistakes players make while playing in sit and go tournaments that basically ensure you will bust out early. Some typical mistakes that a lot of losing sit and go players make include playing like a loose maniac, playing too many tables at once, making big bluffs in the early stages, and over playing drawing hands.

Playing like a maniac is one way that you can severely hurt your chances of doing well in a sit and go tournament. This means you play far too loose and aggressive to be profitable. If you play too many mediocre hands you will often hit something on the flop to improve your hand, but your hand will still not be the best. It’s these hands that will lose you a lot of chips. For example, if you see a flop with (Q,9) and a 9 comes up as middle pair, more often than not this will not be the best hand. If you get too committed with hands like this you will quickly lose a large portion of your stack.

Another mistake many players make is playing too many tournaments at once. The more tournaments you enter the less time and focus you can spend on each tournament. This leads to you making mistakes and misreads that you wouldn’t make if you were playing a more reasonable number of tables. You want to play as many tables as you can to increase your hourly profit, but at some point playing too many tables will actually decrease your expected value and hurt your profitability.

Making big bluffs in the early stages of sit and go tournaments is another mistake that will cost you a lot of valuable chips. In the early stages most players will be playing tight so when they play their hand you should give them credit for a decent hand. If they continue to bet after the flop you should continue to figure that they have a strong hand. At this stage of the tournament big bluffs will often just be donations to the other players. The pots are not big enough to risk your chips without a hand and the other players will often be holding the goods if they are still holding their cards in the late stages of a hand.

Many lower stake sit and go players also drastically overplay draws, which ends up leading to an early exit. If you have a straight or a flush draw you shouldn’t be afraid to just call and see if you hit. There is no need to push all-in on a draw in the early stages of the tournament. If you get called you will almost certainly be behind and the chips you would make from the semi-bluff aren’t worth risking busting out early in the sit and go. For example, if you flop a flush draw you will likely only have around 35% odds to win the hand. These odds aren’t good enough for you to risk your entire tournament on in the hopes of stealing a relatively small pot.

In all sit and go tournaments your goal should be to give yourself a chance to win. If you don’t do any of the things mentioned in this article you are most likely not giving yourself a good shot at winning. In the early stage of a tournament your goal should be to maintain your stack and try to double up when you are dealt a good hand. Play tight and take advantage of all the players who are making the mistakes mentioned in this article.

Other Sit and Go Poker Strategy:

Double or Nothing Poker Strategy

Super Turbo Sit and Go Strategy

Winning the Heads Up Stage of a Sit and Go Tournament

180 Man Sit and Go Tournament Strategy

Stealing the Blinds in a Sit and Go Tournament

45 Man Sit and Go Tournament Strategy

Sit and Go Bankroll Management